Gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan, and two police officers were killed, news agencies quoted the Russian Interior Ministry as saying.

Six people were wounded in the attacks.

The reports said one officer was killed when shots were fired at a synagogue in Derbent, home to an ancient Jewish community in the North Caucasus.

An exchange of fire also took place in an Orthodox Church in the town, a Unesco [United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation] heritage site.

Another exchange of shots took place at a police post in Makhachkala, about 125 kilometres to the north along the Caspian Sea coast and the main city in Dagestan, a mainly Moslem region in southern Russia.